SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Port-au-Prince, 23/11/2006 (SPS) The Republic of Haïti and the Saharawi Republic established diplomatic relations at an ambassadorial level, on Wednesday in Port-au-Prince, according to a joint press release the two States signed in Haiti’s capital by Haiti’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jean Rénald Clérismé and the Saharawi Ambassador, Mr. Mohamed Yeslem Beïssat.

"For the implementation of the principles and objectives contained in the Charter of the CARICOM, of the African Union and the United Nations, the Republic of Haiti and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic decided to establish diplomatic relations at an ambassadorial level starting from Wednesday the 22 November 2006", the joint press release indicated.

The two countries reaffirmed their "commitment regarding the implementation of the UN-African Union’s joint peace plan for the Western Sahara", the text stressed, estimating that "the organisation of a self-determination referendum is the unique reliable solution to the conflict of Western Sahara as it is stipulated in the UN Security Council’s resolutions".

In a statement to the press after the ceremony, Haiti’s Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed his country’s "support to the Saharawi people’s struggle for freedom and independence" , underlining that the right to self-determination is a sacred right and a basis on which the international law was built".

The Head of Haiti’s diplomacy also noted that "the Saharawi Republic is a proof on the attachment o the Saharawi people to this objective", considering that the definitive solution consists in "the respect of the Saharawi people’s independence and on the sovereignty of the Saharawi Republic".

With the establishment of diplomatic relations with Haiti, 82 countries has so far recognised the Saharawi Republic since its proclamation in the 27 of February 1976, knowing that the Saharawi Republic is a founding member of the African Union, it should be recalled. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 221103 nov 06 SPS

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SADR/SOUTH AFRICA

Mr. Mphahlele hails Saharawi people’s "peaceful struggle" for independence

Johannesburg, 23/11/2006 (SPS) The President of the Pan African Congress (PAC), Mr. Letlapa Mphahlele, hailed on the Saharawi people’s "peaceful struggle" on Tuesday in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, expressing "the indefectible support" of his organisation to the Saharawi cause, which is, according to him, "on the top of the international preoccupations" of his party, a close source from the Saharawi Embassy in South Africa.

Mr. Mphahlele, during his reception to the Saharawi human rights activist, Ali Salem Tamek, at the seat of the PAC in Johannesburg, underlined that "the largest experience from which the humanity and the peaceful intifada beneficiate".

Mr. Tamek informed his interlocutors on "human rights violations in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara perpetrated by the Moroccan colonial authorities against the Saharawi helpless civilians sometimes few meters from the United Nations’ mission for the organisation of the organisation of a self-determination referendum (Minurso)".

He called to "the expansion of the mandate of the Minurso to include the protection of the civilians and the respect of the human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara", as well as "the establishment of mechanisms that can guarantee the respect of the Saharawi rights".

The Saharawi militants have before been received at the seat of the South African Ministry of Intelligence by MR. Ronnie Kassrils, The Minister of Intelligence, who affirmed the "conviction of the South African people and Government in the victory of the Saharawi people".

Mr. Tamek was also received by Mr. Mosibudi Mangena and Mrs. Gertrude Mongela, respectively the Minister of Sciences and Technology, and the President of the Pan African Parliament as well as other South African political personalities and intellectuals. (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 231240 Nov 06 SPS

Midrand (South Africa), 23/11/2006 (SPS) The Pan African Parliament (PAP) is planning to send an investigation mission on the human rights violations in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, indicated a report of the Committee of International Relations of the PAP, last Wednesday.

The Pan African Parliament "must send a mission of information on the human rights violations" in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, it can be read in the text presented in the plenary of the 6th ordinary session of the PAP in Midrand, in South Africa.

The members of the Pan African Parliamentarian Committee stressed on the "sufferings of the Saharawi people and the need to resuscitate the dossier (of the Western Sahara), conforming to the UN resolutions and the African Union (AU)".

The question of the Western Sahara "is forgotten", they deplored, and must thus be "reconsidered and brought in front of the international community", they recommended.

They also recommended that the AU to "adopt the necessary dispositions so as to finish the decolonisation of the Western Sahara".

The SADR is a full member in the AU and the PAP, where it is represented by the five Saharawi Parliamentarians such as the other 47 member States.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has dispatched an ad-hoc mission to the Western Sahara last May.

The UN delegation underlined, in its report, the Saharawi people’s rights to self-determination and regretted the violence perpetrated by the Moroccan repression in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. (SPS)

020/090/700/TRD 231302 Nov 06 SPS

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SADR/MAURITANIA/INTIFADA

A Mauritanian poet animates a cultural night dedicated to the Intifada

27th of February School (refugee camps), 23/11/2006 (SPS) The Mauritanian poet and writer, Abdallahi Ould Bouna, animated on Wednesday in the 27th of February School a cultural night dedicated to the Intifada in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara in company of many other Saharawi poets.

Arabic and Hassania poetry supported the chants to salute the courage and abnegation of the Saharawis during this cultural event, organised and supervised by the Chahida Naaja Brahim Cultural Centre, under the presidium of Mrs. Khadija Hamdi, the Saharawi First Lady and Director of the Centre.

The Mauritanian poet, member of the Arab League for Culture Literature and Poetry in Dubai, attended the constitution of a Section of his organisation in the Saharawi refugee camps under the presidency of Mr. Mohamed El Mami Tamek, the Director of the Saharawi newspaper, “Sahara Libre”.

Mr. Oukd Bouna, who has just finished a 15 days visit to the Saharawi refugee camps, declared he was especially impressed by the "great gains realised by the Saharawi people at the level of democracy, political maturity, the management of the State and the social mutual aid in very hostile landscape, the land of exile".

"This is the biggest proof on the determination of this brotherly people to get their independence back and a tangible denial of the Moroccan propaganda, which talks about a pretended sequestrated people", he declared to SPS.

At the end of this visit, which ended on Wednesday evening, Mr. Ould Bouna was received for dinner by the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, with the presence of many Saharawi personalities of the world of culture and Medias. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 231551 nov 06 SPS

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SADR/ECUADOR/DIPLOMACY

New Saharawi Ambassador to Ecuador presents his credentials to President Palacios

Quito, 23/11/2006 (SPS) The new Saharawi Ambassador, El Haj Ahmed, presented his letters of credence, to the President of the Ecuador, Alfredo Palacios, as Ambassador of the Saharawi Republic to the Ecuador, with residence in Caracas, on Wednesday in Quito, the Saharawi Embassy in Venezuela indicated in a press release recently published.

The ceremony took place at the Carondelet Palace, with the presence of the Foreign Affairs Minister in exercise, Ambassador. Susana Alevar, an Ambassadors Eduardo Calderon and Lautaron Posso, respectively director of protocol of the Chancellery and Director of the Presidency, as well as military and political personalities, the same communiqué indicated.

The President of Ecuador expressed his satisfaction of the "state of the excellent bilateral relations between the two countries" and his country’s readiness to "work for the consolidation of the ties of friendship that link the peoples of the two countries, Ecuador and Western Sahara".

On his side, the Saharawi Ambassador hailed the position of support of the Republic of Ecuador to the Saharawi struggle for self-determination and independence.

Last September the Saharawi Ambassador was received by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Ecuador, Francisco Carrion, after the signature by the two States of a joint communiqué that re-established the diplomatic relations between the two countries, it should be recalled. (SPS)

020/090/100/TRD 231650 Nov 06 SPS